Himalayan Ice Disaster, Meta's Landmark Settlement & NFL Players Backtrack - Thursday, August 27, 2026

**Erica Mandy** (0:00)
Today is Thursday, August 27th. We'll tell you about devastating flooding in South Asia, the search for missing people, including American tourists, and the massive ice avalanche that likely caused it all. Also, how hackers apparently built a global network to target NASA, the Federal Reserve, critical American infrastructure, and more. Plus, what newly approved drug is expected to transform cancer care? How a multi-billion dollar settlement could pressure the entire social media industry to change? And why some NFL players are trying to go back to college? Those stories and a lot more news to know next.
Welcome to The NewsWorthy, all the day's news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica Mandy. Thanks so much for being here. Let's do this.
Scientists believe an enormous chunk of ice that snapped off a glacier high in the Himalayas led to extreme flash floods that swept across the border of Nepal and Tibet. Videos captured a giant wall of mud, water, and ice tearing through a mountain valley. It swept people away, snapped bridges into pieces, and pulled multi-story buildings off their foundations. At least 160 people were killed, and the death toll is expected to rise. At least 1,400 tourists have now been reported missing, including at least 54 Americans. Many were on a pilgrimage to a sacred site for Hindus. There are also thousands of people who live in nearby settlements, though authorities have not estimated how many of them may also be missing. Thousands of troops have been deployed to the search and rescue operation, but as of this morning, rescuers are still struggling to reach the disaster zone through narrow mountain roads, and communication has been disrupted.
Some assessments predict the width of the ice chunk that fell in the mountains was nearly half a mile and dropped almost 4,000 feet. The impact registered as the equivalent of a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. It crushed the ice into a fast-moving mix of water, ice, and rock that tumbled thousands of feet into a river valley below. The US State Department says it's now sending a disaster response advisor to the region. It's also offering half a million dollars for things like water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance. The United Nations says it's also responding to what it sees as a massive humanitarian need. Reports say warming temperatures due to climate change may have sped up the glacier's collapse, but it's still too early to know an exact cause. To be continued.
Three Secret Service officials are now under investigation. They include the Secret Service's communications director and two other people who work in his office, and all of them have been placed on leave. The Secret Service has not said what the three are accused of doing, only that the investigation has to do with potential misconduct. The case is being handled by its Office of Professional Responsibility. The official's security clearances and access to their work devices have also been suspended while this investigation plays out. Now, this comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Secret Service. The agency has already been dealing with questions about leaks, including a separate investigation into a Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President JD Vance's detail. That agent was placed on leave already last month over allegations that sensitive information about Vance's travel had been shared when it wasn't supposed to be. To be clear, the Secret Service has not said whether this new investigation is also connected to leaks. In fact, the agency is not saying much more of anything as this investigation continues.
The US says it disrupted a massive hacking operation that had been targeting American government agencies and critical infrastructure for years. The FBI says Chinese hackers from a group known as QTFY have been operating since at least 2018
And the group's targets included NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department, the Senate and the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services. To try to hide their tracks, they apparently built a global network of thousands of compromised devices and cloud services. Essentially, that created a botnet they could use to route their attacks through other people's systems. The FBI says the group also targeted hospitals, power companies, defense contractors and election systems. And this wasn't just about stealing information. American officials say the Chinese company running the operation sold stolen data and access to hacked networks to Chinese intelligence and military services. But they don't say exactly what kind of information was stolen or if the hacks really did any other kind of damage. Now, the FBI and NSA have taken control of some of the domains the hackers were using, which basically knocked their operation offline.
So far, no comment from China on this latest development, but in the past, it has denied being part of any hacking.